Man who held woman captive charged with a dozen crimes, held on $1M bail

By Sheena McFarland The Salt Lake Tribune

Published December 27, 2011 5:23 pm

Facebook plea • Woman posted to social media site after five days of captivity.

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This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Police have filed a dozen charges against a man who police say raped a woman and held her and her son captive for days before she was able to go on Facebook to ask for help.

Troy Reed Critchfield, 33, is being held on $1 million bail for one count of aggravated kidnapping, four counts of forcible sodomy, one count of rape and one count of object rape, all first-degree felonies. He is also being charged with two counts of aggravated assault, a second-degree felony, and a third-degree felony for commission of domestic violence in the presence of a child. He also faces two Class B misdemeanors for child abuse and cruelty to animals.

According to documents filed with the Salt Lake County jail, when Sandy police arrived at the home, the woman said Critchfield had held her and her son for four or five days, that Critchfield had beaten, choked and sodomized her and had "thrown" her 17-month-old son. Critchfield also hadn't fed the dog in five days, the woman said.

Critchfield had taken the woman's cell phone, but about 4:30 p.m. Saturday she was able to sneak into a closet and post a request for help on Facebook, documents say. The note also said she and her son would be dead by morning.

Court documents show Critchfield and the woman have a son together. Critchfield was convicted in 2010 of a felony-level assault against the woman. In February of this year, a judge ordered him to serve 120 days in jail and three years probation.

smcfarland@sltrib.com

Twitter: @sheena5427

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